scratch: Simplest explanation!

When I got no reply to my query of "what/how is scratch?", I assumed that people didn't want to admit 'playing' with infants' toys. Now I'll excuse them, because the INITIAL official documentation is poor. == scratch is a system to write programs/scripts by selecting WHOLE CONSTRUCTS, instead of single characters-from-a-keyboard. == It uses 3 panels: left: a pallette of constructs to select from [which are in 8 groups]; middle: an area where the constructs are assembled in suitable order, to build the script; right: the stage, where the script is observed to run/play. == It would be interesting to extend the system to be syntax-directed. So that, analagously, the roof was only available in the pallette of constructs AFTER the walls of the house had been assembled.

Reply to
Unknown
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The reason I didn't reply is that there is a mass of information on the MIT website:

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I've found it very good. There are also other free online resources, several dedicated books, and a section within the Raspberry Pi user guide.

Not quite. There are four areas; you missed the one below the stage where sprites can be created and edited.

I disagree. Scratch is a learning tool for children, and part of that process needs to be to encourage experimentation, together with finding out why things *didn't* work.

Chris

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Reply to
Chris Whelan

Perhaps that indicates the problem: lisp is described in a few lines, Oberon in a page or 2, C++ = a mess. How's my description of scratch?

OK, I don't have access now. Are the 'sprites' also built by programming constructs: Sequential, Alternate, Repeating?

OK, leave scratch intact, and just use it as a basis for another tool which allows programming by selecting components, syntactically directed.

Reply to
Unknown

Is it? There's a very large community website for scratch chock full of ex amples -- and aside from a tutorial to give you an idea of how to use the U I, I don't think there's much else that needs to be said about it. I would like to point out that if you want game controls to work well, your logic needs to be smart about how it handles input. So for example, an arrow-key handler looks like:

When "LEFT ARROW" pressed: While "LEFT ARROW" is down Set direction -90 Move forward

This lets you get smoother game movement, and a lot of the examples out the re fail to capture this sort of trick.

Check out Snap!, which used to be called BYOB (build your own blocks.) It is basically an expanded flavor of scratch which is more expandable and mor e based on Scheme.

Reply to
Brendan Robert

The advantage of using Scratch for programming, as it was put to me, is that you don't need to worry about syntax. That's all taken care off by the shapes of the blocks. As a result, any program you can construct will run, although of course it may not do what you want it to.

Ian

Reply to
The Real Doctor

Solved the simple problem and left the complex.

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Reply to
Walter Bushell

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